How to Evaluate Marketing Communication: A Practical Guide

Feb 20

You’ve just opened an email from your designer with a proof of your new ad attached. Your first reaction? Hey, this looks pretty good. Second reaction? …But how do I know if it will do what it’s supposed to do?

After sitting in hundreds of creative reviews, our design team has developed some useful guidelines to help clients make confident, strategic decisions when evaluating projects. In our experience, the strongest solutions result when creative work isn’t judged on gut feel alone, but against well-defined objectives – using the same strategic lens you might apply to any other business decision.

We suggest that you start your evaluation by asking three simple questions:

1. Will this resonate with the people we’re trying to reach?

2. Does it look and sound like our brand?

3. Will it help us achieve our business goals?

We’ve created a detailed checklist to help you answer these questions – download it anytime you’re evaluating creative work, to organize and focus your process. The checklist also gives you insight into how our design team thinks when they’re creating a piece of work.

Get the Checklist

Before you evaluate, take time to review your project objectives

A quick review of your project objectives can give you the information you need to get started, including:

Who is our audience? Who are we talking to?
What do we want them to do/know/feel when they see our message?
What is our overall communication goal?

Our designers work from a project brief that describes the objectives and audiences for your project, and any extra details we need to know. It’s our project North Star – the information we constantly refer to when we’re designing.

If it’s available, we also refer to foundational information about your brand – its identity, strategy, and history. And, we research what other people in your market are doing, so that we know how to make you stand out. Before we begin to create, we make sure we understand your goals, your brand, your business, and your market.

When you review, focus on strategy and brand

When reviewing creative work, it’s easy to get caught up in your personal preferences.

Instead of asking, “Does this piece of work reflect my personal taste?” ask, “Does this look and sound like our brand?”

Equally important, is understanding the strategy behind the work – and how it will work to help you achieve your goals.

At the start of every project, our team thinks about the big picture, as well as the specific objectives outlined in your project brief. We ask, “Will this concept help you achieve your overall business goals? Is it a fit for the brand? Is there a way it can be used to support other pieces of marketing?” It’s an intentional and strategic approach in which each design element is developed for maximum effect.

When you give feedback, try to make it specific and actionable

Refinements are part of the creative process – and the final step in your review is to give feedback. You might not know exactly how to express your thoughts – see our blog on that – but our team will work with you to turn your feedback into actionable next steps.

Here are some tips on how to give feedback that will move the project forward:

Anchor your feedback to the project scope, audience, and brand strategy.
Identify the specific elements you want to discuss (colour, layout, font, wording).
Describe the issue as clearly as possible. “The headline feels hard to read at small sizes” is more helpful than, “Something feels off”.
Outline what is working, to clarify what should stay.
Describe the problem, but don’t worry about the fix – the design team will propose a solution once they understand the issue.

How brand and strategy came together to create a bold publication

A project Indalma completed for Southridge School illustrates how clear objectives, brand identity, and strategy can combine to produce creative work that moves an organization forward.

Rather than publishing a typical strategic plan for their independent school, Southridge chose to create a strategic “framework”, which would guide future decision-making, while allowing the school to adapt and remain relevant in a fast-changing world.

The objective was to present this information in a voice and style that felt inspiring, confident, clear, and bold. Our goal was to design a publication that would stand out as “unique” in the independent school market, affirming Southridge’s identity as an “intentionally different” educator.

The creative team needed to work within the established brand standards and identity for this values-based, forward-thinking client. Our design could represent something new for the school, but it had to respect the brand fundamentals.

To achieve a confident tone – and create a unique look – we took a modern, minimalist approach to the design, using alumni quotes, prominent headlines, and vibrant blocks of colour as bold graphic elements. To add visual interest, we introduced a new brand colour inspired by the school’s uniforms. And, to give the piece an elegant, high-end feel, we selected a high-quality, textured cover stock with an inside flap and text that features spot gloss.

Both our team and the client were clear on the objectives for this project. We knew where we wanted to go, and considered all of the design elements – in detail – that would get us there. The result is a beautifully crafted print piece that elevates the brand — and the strategy it communicates.